Reyes, Ben T.

This collection spans 1970-1988, a period from when U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War wound down and ended in 1973, until just before the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989. People of color were struggling to obtain the civil rights granted in legislation from a decade ago and to extend their political and economic power. Demands were being made for a greater voice in government and the business, employment and services government offered. Domestically there was political turmoil at the national level. The Watergate scandal resulted in President Nixon’s 1974 resignation and the succession of Vice-president Gerald Ford who pardoned the former president. Dissatisfaction stemming from the pardon contributed to the election of Jimmy Carter whose administration was blamed for double-digit inflation, an oil shortage crisis, and the Iranian hostage crisis. President Ronald Reagan was elected in 1984 to deal with those problems and seemed to bring some peace to the domestic scene.

The Vietnam War ended in 1975 and many Vietnamese war refugees settled in Houston, straining social services and increasing demands for low-level jobs, competing with other non-whites. On the local level, the oil crisis of the late 1970s helped to drive the oil boom, causing a Houston building explosion until the oil bust of 1982 deflated the boom into a significant retraction of Houston’s economy. The race in Houston to erect downtown office buildings to accommodate the oil boom ended with empty structures, failed banks, many foreclosed homes and considerable local unemployment. The City of Houston had to deal with declining revenues and forced layoffs. Houston’s economy began a gradual shift to technology, away from oil field equipment production. There was considerable mistrust of local police departments, who were suspected of suppression of non-white people by abuse of power, including unlawful killings and cover-ups.

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